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The Associated Press announced in an advisory to customers today that the majority of U.S. corporate earnings stories for our business news report will eventually be produced using automation technology.

Here, Lou Ferrara, the AP managing editor who oversees business news, explains how this leap forward takes advantage of new technologies to free journalists to spend more time on things like beat reporting and source development while increasing, by a factor of more than 10, the volume of earnings reports for customers.

Lou Ferrara, vice president and managing editor

Why is the AP doing this?

Like all media companies, AP is constantly reviewing what content it needs to provide to customers and the best use of its reporting resources. At the same time, we analyze the value of the content we produce in the marketplace.

For many years, we have been spending a lot of time crunching numbers and rewriting information from companies to publish approximately 300 earnings reports each quarter. We discovered that automation technology, from a company called Automated Insights, paired with data from Zacks Investment Research, would allow us to automate short stories – 150 to 300 words — about the earnings of companies in roughly the same time that it took our reporters.

And instead of providing 300 stories manually, we can provide up to 4,400 automatically for companies throughout the United States each quarter.

We believe technological automation will be a part of many businesses, including those in media. As part of its business relationship with Automated Insights, AP participated in the company’s latest round of investment financing with other strategic partners.

Does it mean we are no longer providing editorial coverage of earnings reports?

No. If anything, we are doubling down on the journalism we will do around earnings reports and business coverage.

We are going to use our brains and time in more enterprising ways during earnings season. Rather than spending a great deal of time focusing on the release of earnings and hammering out a quick story recapping each one, we are going to automate that process for all U.S. companies in the 4,400. (We are exploring whether we can automate earnings from companies outside the United States.)

Instead, our journalists will focus on reporting and writing stories about what the numbers mean and what gets said in earnings calls on the day of the release, identifying trends and finding exclusive stories we can publish at the time of the earnings reports.

AP’s staff breaks a lot of business news and obtains numerous exclusives throughout the year from many of the top companies in the world. We know that is what our customers want and we are going to deliver more of it through this process.

Are we eliminating jobs to do this?

No. This is about using technology to free journalists to do more journalism and less data processing, not about eliminating jobs. In fact, most of the staff has been receptive to the effort and involved for the past few months of discussion.

How does it work?

Zacks maintains the data when the earnings reports are issued. Automated Insights has algorithms that ping that data and then in seconds output a story. The structure for the earnings reports stories was crafted by AP with Automated Insights. All conform to AP Style, the standard of journalistic style.

The stories will be labeled as being produced automatically with material from Zacks.

As we begin using automation technology in July, we will check each automatically generated report and then publish to the AP wire. As we work out any problems, we hope to move to a model of more fully automating the reports and spot-checking the feed for quality control.

Will you be automating other parts of the AP report?

Interestingly, we already have been automating a good chunk of AP’s sports agate report for several years. Data comes from STATS, the sports statistics company, and is automated and formatted into our systems for distribution. A majority of our agate is produced this way.

By comparison, though, the earnings reports are produced into stories – not just data feeds. And we are looking at whether there are other things we should be automating in this way. Last football season, we introduced an automated NFL player ranking on the website for pro football that we host for newspapers. That ranking included automated text descriptions of player performances each week, which were produced by Automated Insights. We also are examining the potential for automating results stories for lower-audience sports.

When will the automated earnings reports be available?

We are planning to go live in July, and we will be paying close attention to all of the reports as we adapt to this new process. We will address any concerns or bugs, and then keep moving ahead.

Our hope is that customers will begin to see the benefits almost immediately through more breaking business news and an increased volume of earnings reports. Many customers will receive info for companies in their markets that they never received from AP before.

The following advisory was sent today to editors at AP member news organizations:

Starting next month, The Associated Press will take a fresh approach to its coverage of global financial markets.

Instead of two separate stories each day – one about U.S. markets and the other about international markets – AP will produce a single story that reports and analyzes the most important global news and trends.

(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

The global financial markets story will be updated throughout the day in Asia, Europe and the U.S. and will include coverage of stocks, bonds, oil and other commodities.

The story will move under the slug BC-Financial Markets, beginning on Monday, July 28. It will replace BC-US-Wall Street, BC-World Markets, BC-Oil Prices and BC-Commodities Review. (AP will no longer write separate daily stories on oil and commodities.)

Just like the current Wall Street story, the new Financial Markets storywill feature an easy-to-read format suited to the Web and mobile devices. It will include a market summary, followed by brief sections that highlight key news and trends. (See two examples below.)

This format gives readers lots of information with continuous updates and catchy headlines.

After markets close each day in the U.S., the AP will continue to publish a more traditional, narrative-style story that summarizes and analyzes the most important events in financial markets. A narrative-style story about markets can run at any time, in any global region, when warranted by major news events …

Here’s an example of how the new format for the BC-Financial Markets story might have looked like on June 11 at around 5 a.m. Eastern time, reflecting moves in Asian and European markets:

LONDON (AP) — Global stock markets turned skittish Wednesday after the World Bank lowered its global growth forecast and a militant takeover of a key Iraqi city pushed oil prices higher. The World Bank cut its 2014 growth forecast to 2.8 percent, citing a bitter American winter and the political crisis in Ukraine. The weaker outlook sent Asian markets mostly lower, except for Japan, which closed slightly higher.

WEAKER FORECAST: The World Bank’s gloomier outlook dampened investors’ enthusiasm for stocks, which had been on the upswing. The bank cut its forecast for growth this year to 2.8 percent from the 3.2 percent it forecast in January.

OIL SPIKE: Oil prices rose ahead of an OPEC meeting in Europe that is expected to keep production levels steady for the year. Benchmark U.S. oil for July delivery rose 30 cents to $104.65 a barrel in electronic trading in New York, extending Tuesday’s large gain. Energy markets were also affected by al-Qaida-inspired militants overrunning much of the Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday. Mosul lies in an area that is a major gateway for Iraqi oil.

THE TAKEAWAY: IG Group analyst Ryan Huang said the broader outlook for the global economy remains strong, especially after the European Central Bank announced additional monetary stimulus. “Last week’s monetary policy decision by the ECB to cut rates should also set the eurozone on course for recovery and help developing countries as a market for their exports,” Hwang said in a market commentary. “That will be a further boost for China.”

CURRENCIES: The dollar fell to 102.06 yen from 102.33 late Tuesday. The euro slipped to $1.3534 from $1.3544.

—

And here’s what a version might have looked like on June 11 at about 1:30 p.m. Eastern time, reflecting trading in U.S. markets:

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks slipped and government bond prices rose after the World Bank downgraded its forecast for the global economy this year, citing a bitter American winter and the political crisis in Ukraine. Markets also slumped in Europe and Asia, except for Japan, where indexes ended slightly higher.

KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell six points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,944 as of 1:20 p.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 99 points, or 0.6 percent, to 16,846. The Nasdaq composite fell four points, or 0.1 percent, to 4,333. Markets also closed lower in Europe and Asia.

GLOBAL GROWTH: The World Bank said late Tuesday that it expects the world economy to grow 2.8 percent this year, below the 3.2 percent expansion it had predicted in January.

TAKING A PAUSE: Despite declines Tuesday and early Wednesday, the S&P 500 has been on a slow and steady rise since April and is now up 5.2 percent for the year. In recent weeks, encouraging economic reports have pushed the index to a string of all-time highs, with its latest record of 1,951.27 occurring Monday.

KEEPING THE FAITH: The rally in stocks should continue this year as the economy strengthens, said James Lui, global market strategist at JPMorgan Funds. In the last month, stock gains have been led by the technology and consumer discretionary sectors, which should benefit more from stronger growth. This move “is going to be what drives the market further along,” Lui said.

BEST BEHIND US: Boeing fell $2.88, or 2.1 percent, to $134.37 after brokerage RBC cut its outlook on the plane maker’s stock. Analysts at the bank say that after three years of record orders and no new planes in the pipeline, the good news for Boeing is “already out there.”

TAX BOOST: H&R Block jumped $1.34 cents, or 4.4 percent, to $32.07 after the tax preparation company reported earnings that beat analysts’ expectations. The company’s fourth-quarter net income surged as more people used its services and its prepaid card.

TOUCH-SCREEN TECH: Synaptics jumped $18.16, or 27 percent, to $84.68 after the maker of touch-screen technology said it would buy smartphone and tablet chipmaker Renesas SP Drivers for $475 million. Because of the deal, Synaptics also raised its fourth-quarter revenue outlook.

BONDS, COMMODITIES AND CURRENCIES: As stocks fell, government bonds rallied. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note eased to 2.64 percent from 2.65 percent late Tuesday. The price of oil was little changed at $104.34 a barrel. The dollar fell to 102.10 yen from 102.33 late Tuesday. The euro slipped to $1.3514 from $1.3544.

For decades, AP reporters have chronicled every big play, every no-hitter and every controversy that erupts on the field during the hundreds of games that make up the Major League Baseball season.

Now, we’re reshaping the way that game coverage looks.

Starting July 28, we’ll launch a new format that presents the game story in a faster, more accessible and more customizable package. Instead of a traditional 600-word game story, our coverage will feature 300 words about the game and then up to five bullet points that highlight mini storylines, injuries, key plays and what’s coming next for a team.

It’ll be faster to read, faster to publish and more customizable for newsrooms. Unique content will be more easily highlighted and communicated. Editors can choose to use the 300-word story, or break off the bullet points for websites.

The new format is based on customer feedback and a trial conducted during spring training this year.

The basics won’t change: We will continue to publish a NewsNow at game’s end, a 300-word writethru shortly after, followed by a 600-word writethru and a hometown lead.

What will change is how those stories look. The top of the story will continue to look like a traditional AP game story. After 300 words, the text will break into a chunky-text presentation featuring up to five bullet points that explain team storylines, key plays, injuries and a look ahead to what’s next for a team or player.

CLEVELAND — With seven games still left this month, Jason Kipnis has already surpassed his statistics from last April.

That wasn’t hard to do.

“I set the bar so low,” he said.

Kipnis drove in Nick Swisher from first base with a two-out double in the seventh inning, sending the Cleveland Indians to a 5-3 win over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night.

Kipnis, who batted just .200 with one homer and four RBIs in the season’s first month in 2013, ripped his double off Kelvin Herrera (0-1) into the gap in right-center, deep enough to easily score Swisher, who reached on a two-out single.

“That was a real big hit,” Indians manager Terry Francona said. “Sometimes you need a big hit at a big time and we got it tonight.”

The Indians tacked on an important insurance run in the eighth on pinch-hitter Lonnie Chisenhall’s bloop RBI single.

Bryan Shaw (1-0) finished the seventh and got one out in the eighth. Cody Allen retired two, and John Axford worked the ninth for his AL-leading eighth save.

Michael Bourn had three hits and two RBIs for the Indians. Bourn, Nick Swisher and Kipnis, Cleveland’s 1-2-3 hitters, combined for six hits and three RBIs.

Salvador Perez and Mike Moustakas hit back-to-back homers in the second for Kansas City.

Indians starter Justin Masterson remained winless through five starts. The staff’s ace, who turned down a contract extension during spring training, allowed two earned runs and eight hits in 6 1-3 innings.

“I’ll take as many no-decisions as come as long as we’re winning,” he said.

Down 3-2, the Indians tied it in the sixth off lefty starter Jason Vargas when Michael Brantley scored from first on two Kansas City errors.

Brantley singled with one out, and broke for second with two down and Yan Gomes batting. As Brantley slid safely into second, the throw from catcher Perez skipped into center field. Brantley hustled toward third and center fielder Jarrod Dyson took his eye off the ball, overrunning it and letting the tying run score.

“I came in too hard,” Dyson said. “I should have come in and played it off the hop because I probably didn’t have a shot at him anyway.”

Moustakas’ RBI single after Kipnis dropped a throw for an error had given the Royals a 3-2 lead in the sixth.

TIPPING PITCHES?

One night after Cleveland’s struggling right-hander Danny Salazar said he might be tipping his pitches, Indians manager Terry Francona said the 24-year-old Salazar is just leaving too many over the plate. Francona was surprised Salazar would say he was giving hitters clues.

“He’s not,” Francona said. “There were some instances last year in spring training that we kind of addressed with him. But, no, we really keep an eye on that.”

SLUMPS

Royals: Perez snapped an 0-for-22 slump with a drive over the center field wall off Masterson in the second inning for his first homer. The Royals catcher with a .295 average in three-plus seasons entered batting just .211 in 71 at-bats.

Indians: Third baseman-designated hitter Carlos Santana is in a 2-for-46 (.043) slide.

SLOPPY PLAY

The Indians came in tied for the AL lead with 20 errors. Kipnis, the second baseman, made his third of the year Wednesday.

A team of Associated Press journalists across the states worked together to break an exclusive national story and help member news organizations leverage data to produce unique, local reports tied to AP’s findings. In this memo to staff, AP Vice President and Managing Editor for U.S. News Brian Carovillano explains:

In this June 9, 2014 photo, a petroleum industry worker stands on an oil and gas rig on a well pad, in New Castle, a small farming and ranching settlement on the Western Slope of the Rockies, in Colo. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

The report from the Government Accountability Office was intriguing: The government had failed to inspect thousands of oil and gas wells on federal and Indian lands classified as potentially high risk for water contamination and other environmental damage.

But the details were missing. Where were these wells? And did the lack of inspections contribute to any environmental damage?

The Bureau of Land Management was reluctant to provide details, but Washington-based reporter Hope Yen, who broke the story on the GAO report, pressed the agency over the course of several weeks, citing the public’s right to know.

The GAO’s findings came as the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has been increasing around the country. While fracking has produced major economic benefits, it also has raised fears among environmentalists that chemicals used in the process could spread to water supplies.

When BLM finally released the data to AP, it was in the form of nearly a dozen spreadsheets. Phoenix-based Interactive Editor Dan Kempton, a member of the data journalism team, consolidated them into two master files, allowing calculations to determine which wells on federal and tribal lands were considered higher risk for water contamination and other environmental problems, and whether or not they were inspected by BLM within the given time period, 2009-2012.

Kempton identified, and BLM later confirmed, that its data had duplicate entries and other inconsistencies. Kempton consolidated the duplicates and merged the missing entries to create the most complete and accurate list available of well inspection data. The consolidated spreadsheets were then distributed in advance to AP bureaus and members in states with drilling operations on public and Indian lands, so they could start working on localized stories to accompany Yen’s national overview.

But the data alone was dry. Absent was the human impact. What was the reaction of people living near these uninspected wells? With Colorado among the top states with uninspected wells, Denver reporter Thomas Peipert and photographer Brennan Linsely literally knocked on door after door to gather reaction and get photos to illustrate the story.

The story was used on the front pages of more than a dozen newspapers from Denver to Akron, Ohio, to Williamsport, Pa., and Tuscaloosa, Ala. It was featured as a Yahoo showcase, and in the 24-hour period following its release, it was tweeted out nearly 600 times. It was also one on the most widely viewed stories on AP Mobile. About a dozen AP bureaus produced state separates, and many members did their own stories using data provided by AP (The Salt Lake Tribune, Times Leader).

It was yet another example of how data journalism offers AP an opportunity to work with its members to provide the tools for local, granular coverage of national issues.

For their enterprising and exclusive journalism, and for furthering AP’s efforts to help members localize our coverage, Yen, Kempton, Peipert and Linsely win this week’s $300 Best of the States prize.

How best to refer to the al-Qaida splinter group leading Sunni militants in Iraq? ISIL or ISIS?

In Arabic, the group is known as Al-Dawla Al-Islamiya fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham, or the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham. The term “al-Sham” refers to a region stretching from southern Turkey through Syria to Egypt (also including Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan). The group’s stated goal is to restore an Islamic state, or caliphate, in this entire area.

The standard English term for this broad territory is “the Levant.” Therefore, AP’s translation of the group’s name is the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.

“We believe this is the most accurate translation of the group’s name and reflects its aspirations to rule over a broad swath of the Middle East,” says John Daniszewski, AP vice president and senior managing editor for international news.

The term ISIL also avoids the common misunderstanding, stemming from the initials ISIS, that the group’s name is the “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.” (“Iraq and Greater Syria” might be an acceptable translation, since Greater Syria also implies the entire area of the Levant.) But saying just “Iraq and Syria” suggests incorrectly that the group’s aspirations are limited to these two present-day countries.

ISIL is also the term used by the United Nations.

—
This note was corrected on June 18 to reflect that al-Sham does not include Iraq.

In a note to staff, AP Vice President and Managing Editor for U.S. News Brian Carovillano explains how a reporter worked longtime sources to keep AP ahead on a significant state story:

When Delaware officials ordered the immediate shutdown of a bridge on Interstate 495 because its tilting columns presented a potential threat to drivers, correspondent Randall Chase and Mid-Atlantic News Editor Amanda Kell knew they had a major story on their hands. The route, which parallels busy I-95 between Philadelphia and Baltimore, was closed because columns supporting a bridge had tilted dramatically and an estimated 90,000 drivers a day were being diverted onto the busier highway.

Chase and Kell, working in close concert with staff on the South Regional Desk, produced a week of insightful coverage that pushed authorities to justify their response to the crisis, pressed them to re-examine how the state inspects its infrastructure and beat the competition at the same time. The key to AP’s aggressive coverage across text, photo and video formats and its drumbeat of scoops was the stable of sources that Chase has accrued during his 13 years of coverage for AP in Delaware.

By often working late into each night and by arranging interviews with officials in advance of scheduled news conferences, Chase ensured AP was first to name the contractor responsible for dumping a massive pile of dirt under the bridge, which officials were blaming for the tilting columns. After days of pressing officials for their plans, Chase also broke the news that all bridges in Delaware would be inspected by the state and that Delaware will add examinations of the ground under bridges to its future inspections. His extensive interview with the engineer who discovered the tilting columns also led to a story that questioned the urgency of the state’s response and of its own official timeline, which until that point said the transportation department had been warned of the issue on a Friday, when in fact it had been warned a day earlier. AP also was first with an acknowledgment from the state transportation agency chief that his department could have moved more quickly to examine the bridge after the engineer contacted officials.

Chase’s work landed in outlets including MSN and The Philadelphia Inquirer and AP was credited by The Washington Post, NPR and Tribune Co.

For aggressive coverage and working sources on a major story in his state, Randall Chase wins this week’s $300 Best of the States prize.

Her name is Hamamatou Harouna. She is 10 years old and unable to walk because she has polio.

Amid the sectarian violence in Central African Republic, she managed to survive a rampage by Christian fighters on her Muslim village by fleeing on the back of her 12-year-old brother.

In this April 16, 2014 photo, 10-year-old Hamamatou Harouna smiles as she sits in a tent with other Muslim refugees on the grounds of the Catholic Church in Carnot, Central African Republic. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Her story – one of heartache and resilience — was pieced together by AP West Africa correspondent Krista Larson, who notes in her report that hundreds of thousands of children have been displaced by violence in the country and hundreds have become separated from their families..

Larson told The Definitive Source blog that she researched Hamamatou’s story with the help of a Sango translator over a two-week period.

“I was in Carnot, Central African Republic, to do a follow-up story about the Catholic church that was sheltering 900 Muslims,” she said. “AP Chief Africa Photographer Jerome Delay spotted Hamamatou crawling through the mud on her way back from the communal toilets and snapped her photo. She stole our hearts with her determination and bright eyes.”

Larson continued: “I went to her tent with my Sango translator and we did a first interview. I contacted my editor, Mary Rajkumar, who gave me more suggestions for questions to ask and people to talk to. We then interviewed her several times over the next day or so, and then we went to her home village of Guen, where we learned more about the attack her family had fled.

“It’s been touching to see how many people have reached out to help Hamamatou despite a lack of international interest in the conflict ravaging her country.”

Behold the first official AP account of the D-Day landings, reported by our chief invasion correspondent, Wes Gallagher. Though the words he filed on that fateful day 70 years ago are part of the first draft of history, a paper copy, likely ripped off a click-clacking printer at AP’s New York headquarters (as well as in newsrooms around the world), surfaced this week in the voluminous AP Corporate Archives during a D-Day-related search.

Seen here, Gallagher’s story, complete with typo, begins: “American, British and Canadian forces landed by daylight in massive strength on the Normandy coast of France today and sped inland from quickly-established beachheads. Gen. Dewight D. Eisenhower told his troops this grand assault was a crusade which must bring “nothing less than full victory.'”

The original story of the landings at Normandy, written by AP’s chief invasion correspondent, Wes Gallagher. See more of the story at the bottom of this post.

Gallagher was stationed at SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces) in Portsmouth, England. His job was to take official military information and turn it into poetry, which he does here, as indicated by the red-penciling atop the page by Paul R. Mickelson, AP general news editor in New York. “Straight, factual, fast and superb,” he calls it.

At the end of Gallagher’s dispatch, which was his “second lead” of the unfolding story, is the signoff “DA1005AEW.” This coding includes the initials of the sending operator and the time: 10:05 a.m. Eastern War Time. That would have been 3:05 p.m. in England.

Gallagher (1911-97) later became AP’s ninth general manager.

In all, 18 AP staffers “were assigned to various phases of the Expeditionary force news,” AP World, the company publication, later reported. “They were backed by ten desk men who pitched into the main and running story, reinforced by an elite team of photographers and artists … Copy flowed out. There were 40,000 words in the first 24 hours, all written by staffers on the scene.”

Also on June 6, 1944, daring cameramen were filming the Allies’ assault by sea and air, including the combat on the beaches. British Movietone News, whose current sales are handled by AP Archive, produced this vivid 10-minute reel of D-Day preparations and the onslaught that changed history.

In a note to staff, AP Vice President and Managing Editor for U.S. News Brian Carovillano lauds New York City Hall reporter Jonathan Lemire for strengthening AP’s fight for access to public information:

AP New York City Hall reporter Jonathan Lemire discusses limited media access to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on WNBC’s “The Debrief with David Ushery.”

On the campaign trail, Bill de Blasio promised to have the most transparent mayoral administration in New York City history. The cracks in that promise literally began forming on the day he took office, when his staff announced that the official midnight swearing-in would be “closed press.”

After hours of protests led by the AP, that restriction was eventually lifted. But the episode tipped [Lemire] that de Blasio may not be as media-friendly as he’d claimed. So Lemire began watching.

For months, he collected de Blasio’s official schedule, taking note each time his official events and meetings were either closed to the press or designated as pool only, with just one print reporter, photographer and video journalist allowed.

As the months wore on, Lemire noticed the frequency of de Blasio’s media restrictions was actually increasing. Several news organizations in New York also noticed and wrote op-eds. The time seemed ripe, at nearly five months into the new administration, for Lemire to tally up the de Blasio schedules he’d collected.

Here’s what he found: 260 total events, 53 of which were completely closed, amounting to 20 percent of de Blasio’s entire schedule. Add in the 30 more events that were pool only, and more than 30 percent of the mayor’s events were either closed or restricted to the media.

A mayor’s spokesman told Lemire that any restrictions on media access were due to logistics, not secrecy. But Lemire didn’t think it would be fair to run the story without de Blasio’s comment. When Lemire told him what the AP had found, de Blasio initially said transparency is often “in the eye of the beholder.” But he eventually acknowledged that “there is a whole swatch of information that needs to be available to the public and we need to continue to do a better job on that.”

His story was widely used in New York, with TV attributing to AP in their own reports, and several local reporters hammering de Blasio on the subject for days. [Time Warner Cable News] NY1’s Bob Hardt opined: “The mayor might want to realize that openness isn’t just good policy, it’s good politics.” And the [New York Post] said “if progressives are really acting — as they claim — on behalf of the people, why are they so keen on keeping a free press from seeing what they’re up to?” Capital New York interviewed Lemire on how he got the story. [Lemire also discussed his reporting on WNBC’s “The Debrief with David Ushery.”]

There was even some evidence that de Blasio was softening his stand two days after the story ran, adding “photo spray” access to a closed event, which had not been normal procedure before.

De Blasio’s tactics echo those of the Obama White House, which has routinely restricted access to the media and then released a photo from an “official photographer,” meaning an official image of the event is the only one that exists. AP and other news organizations have labeled these “visual news releases” and refused to distribute such handouts from the White House, and we are taking the same approach with City Hall.

Lemire’s disciplined beat reporting produced a nice accountability scoop and furthered AP’s leading role in fighting for media access in all the territories where we operate. For that, he wins this week’s $300 Best of the States prize.